Malenting

A friend of mine says malenting whenever she means lamenting.

She had probably said it a dozen times and I hadn't noticed until one day she mentioned it.

I can't imagine thinking anything of it if I had heard it because in my crazy mind words, numbers, entire thoughts get jumbled, particularly at the end of a long or emotionally taxing day.

In fact, I am known to get whole parts of sentences reversed.

Ever since she told me, though, I think my ear has been pricked to try to catch it live.

The other night we went to the movies and had to wait in line to enter the theater.

There were several patrons for whom the concept of waiting was an unexpected and not happy surprise.

One woman paced in front trying to coax her mate into not joining in the line. She seemed to think they could charge the box office and the ticket taker would realize his folly and invite them in.

After quizzing those of us actually standing in line obediently and then forcing her mate ot ask someone who really mattered, like the ticket taker or the ticket seller, she came back to the line not really resigned to actually having to join in at the end.

My friend looked at me and she said about the woman: "She's malenting having to stand in line."

EXACTLY.

I played the sentence in my mind over a few times. There was something so perfect about that statement.

Several days later, I find myself noticing the people malenting.

It's not that my friend meant anything other than lamenting -- except in this case it did have a sarcastic overtone.

In my mind, though, malenting has taken on a shade of meaning: it is reserved for those lamenting something that requires no such dramatic emotion.

You know like someone malenting not having won three million dollars instead of two million dollars.

Or someone malenting having burned his finger after sticking it into fire.

I like words and I know they are supposed to have fixed, precise meanings, but I often see them in grayscale.

Malenting comes across to me as a kin to malevolent or malingering while retaining much of its original meaning.

Perhaps that's why I love BALDERDASH and why I can't focus real words on BOGGLE!